Not Alone
by Castgirl
Summary: Harry finds himself in his 4th year of Hogwarts, but not all is as it seems. For at the very beginning of the term the dark lord makes an appearance, along with a mysterious girl, a powerful witch who seems to know more than she is letting on. Who is she? Read on to find out!
1. Chapter 1

Harry was sitting amongst his many friends at Hogwarts, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Dean, Seamus, all waiting impatiently for the year's first feast to begin. Hermione sat to his left, her nose in a book as usual, while Ron grumbled from across the table, complaining about how hungry he was and what was taking so long.

Finally a group of terrified looking first years filed into the great hall in a scraggly line behind Professor McGonagall. Dumbledore rose to his feet, peering over his half-moon spectacles at the students gathered around him, preparing to give the beginning of year speech, the whole don't go into the forbidden forest, Filch has a list of forbidden objects, listen to all your professors, tuck in speech. It seemed like everyone was holding their breath for the tuck in bit, but Dumbledore had barely opened his mouth when it happened.

A flash of silvery light filled a small space just above the table, illuminating the surprised faces of Harry and his friends. A wash of calm flowed through Harry, a feeling of peace, and… love. Then the light flashed brighter nearly blinding them and was gone, it its place a girl.

She had dark coal black hair with one dark red streak framing her face, bright hazel eyes that darted around her, taking in her new surroundings, was tall and skinny, but not as lanky as Ron. She had on tight black pants, a black tank top, and long black robes that looked much like those that students at Hogwarts wore, but also looked somewhat like an overly long trench coat so that while muggles might look at her a bit strangely they wouldn't think anything too odd about it. Around her neck rested a golden chain, the end of which disappeared underneath her shirt, hidden from view.

She grasped a mahogany colored wand in her hand, and she was bleeding. As she landed from the short fall onto the table she stumbled and landed resting on one knee, breathing hard and surveying the situation around her.

Several of the professors stood up to get a better view, as did many of the students at other tables.

Dumbledore seemed about to say something when a loud crash could be heard coming from the left side of the hall. Harry whipped his head around to stare at the now shattered window, shards of glass spraying across the floor. A hideous black shape was speeding across the hall towards the Gryffindor table, like some tentacled beast, a smoke demon.

The hall was filled with a terrible sense of foreboding as the presence of evil spread across it. The creature exploded in a puff of black smoke when it reached the table, about 10 feet away from where the girl was now struggling to her feet. And in its place stood a dark figure, a figure Harry instinctively knew and wished beyond hope to never see again. His sickly skin glistened in the light of the candles, his self-satisfied, horrible, sickening grin spreading across his face, a white wand raised in front of him pointed directly at the girl, his torn black robes billowing around him.

Thunder and lightning crashed across the now black ceiling. The girl had managed to stand and was crouched slightly as if preparing for an attack. Blood dripped from underneath her hair, rolling down her cheek and staining her pale skin. She grimaced slightly.

Harry was utterly shocked, and filled with a hate that he never thought he could feel.

There before him stood the man who had taken everything from him.

There stood Tom Riddle.

There stood the one known as Lord Voldemort.

(AN: Thanks for reading the first chapter! I know its short but I've already written the next and its a bit longer. Who's the girl? Why is Voldemort here? What's going on? REVIEW PLEASE! I wanna know what you guys think.)


	2. Chapter 2

Harry let out a gasp staring bug-eyed at the scene before him, the man who had killed his parents, who was supposedly gone and dead right before his eyes, preparing to kill again.

He jumped up ready to do something, what he had no idea. What could he do after all? This was Voldemort, someone who had killed so many wizards and witches far more powerful than he.

Hermione glanced up at Harry and grasped hold of his sleeve, holding on for dear life, begging Harry with this one action to use his head for once and not just go and attack the most powerful dark wizard of the time, possibly ever.

The thunderstruck expression plastered across Ron's face would have been priceless, hilarious even, had the situation not been so serious.

Voldemort seemed to realize where he was and let out a high pitched laugh, somewhere between a banshee screech and the hiss of a snake, throwing his head back with mirth. With a flick of his wand a green light seemed to envelope the hall, and Harry found himself being forced back down into his seat, and permanently sealed there as though under some kind of body-bind curse.

Glancing around as best he could it seemed like everyone else in the hall had been hit with the same curse including the teachers, and Dumbledore. They were definitely doomed now; there was nobody to save them. Voldemort would murder the girl and then the rest of them, except maybe the Slitherins and possibly Snape.

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but found that no sound came out. It seemed Voldemort had cast some kind of silencing charm as well.

He fought as best he could against the curse, but it felt like a thousand lead weights were pressing down upon his chest, his brain going a bit fuzzy in the process.

Voldemort returned his attention to the girl who was still crouched ready for his oncoming attack. He pulled his wand back a bit and thrust it forward shouting, "INCENDIO!" a ball of fire spurting out and headed directly for her.

But she was quick, despite her injuries, and rolled out of the way just in time, quickly regaining her footing and facing Voldemort once again.

Seeming even more enraged by this action Voldemort pointed his wand directly at her, eyes blazing, and shouted, "Crucio!"

The girl was instantly flat on her back writhing on the table as if in immense pain, but Harry couldn't see the cause. It was as though the curse he had just uttered was torturing her, burning her alive. It was terrible to watch, one of the worst sights Harry had ever seen. Briefly he wondered whether Voldemort had done this to his parents but quickly dismissed the thought, choosing to focus back on the scene before him.

The girl let out a muffled screech, as if trying to contain her agony but only just failing entirely to do so. Voldemort smiled sadistically at her, a terrible look of joy in his eyes. Then something remarkable happened.

Despite the pain she seemed to slightly recover herself, and with great effort lifted her arms and pushed up slightly. She bent her legs, as if trying to regain her fighting position but doing so while tied down by concrete bricks.

Struggling she managed to right herself, and still crouched low to the ground, her whole body trembling, racked with spasms, pointed her wand directly at Voldemort. A flash of red light erupted from her wand and sped directly at Voldemort.

Surprised he only just managed to deflect it in time, staggering back a few steps and in the process releasing the girl from his curse.

She stood up gasping, still trembling from her obviously torturous experience and looked at Voldemort with a look of utter loathing and defiance. She flicked her wand at him again, another burst of red light, and once again he deflected it, this time countering with his own wave of green light.

She waved her wand in her right hand while holding up her left as if to shield herself, and indeed an invisible barrier seemed to expand between her and Voldemort, bouncing the spell back at him and forcing him to dodge out of the way.

Voldemort's gaze appraised the students around him, until he noticed Harry not far from the girl's position. Gleefully he sent another burst of green directly at Harry, who was utterly defenseless and unable to move out of the way.

The girl noticed where his most recent spell was headed and gasped a bit, running and leaping in front of Harry all while waving her wand furiously, creating a strong protection in front of them.

"Oh no you don't." She whispered under her breath, so low that Harry was not sure he had made it out quite right.

Now in some kind of mad furry she began waving her wand madly sending burst after burst of red and gold sparks at Voldemort, forcing him onto the defensive, unable to find time in between her attacks to do anything but defend.

Suddenly, the impossible happened, a small spark of gold hit Voldemort square in the chest, perhaps not injuring him much, but certainly startling him. He hissed loudly and with one final attempt to curse her disappeared into the black smoke creature once more, and disappeared from the hall shattering another window in the process.

The lights suddenly brightened, the ceiling going back to the bright night sky, the green light disappearing and students and teachers alike regaining their ability to move and speak.

Loud whispered filled the hall. Dumbledore rose once more and skirted around the teachers table to make his way to the girl. Snape stared at her in utter disbelief, an emotion shared by many of the students though perhaps not for the same reason.

The girl stood there on the table still in front of Harry gasping, blood pooling down her face. The adrenaline seemed to be wearing off and she swayed slightly, collapsing. Harry leapt up leaning over to here, not sure at all what to do, still too shocked about the whole situation to truly comprehend what was going on.

Dumbledore reached Harry's side and looked down at the girl as well, curiously. His hands moved to her head quickly brushing over the matted blood just above her forehead and shook his head slightly. Then he turned to Hagrid who was making his way down as well, probably to check on Harry and said, "We'd better get this girl to the hospital wing and get Madam Pomfrey to have a look at her."

Hagrid gingerly gathered her up in his massive arms and trudged out of the hall, Dumbledore leading the way.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry sat back, dumfounded. Of all the things that had happened to him in the past 3 years at Hogwarts, this was by far the strangest. Had Lord Voldemort really come back? And had that girl really defeated him? She didn't look much older than Harry himself, perhaps a fifth or sixth year, and yet she had survived where so many others had not.

Hermione and Ron were looking at him concernedly, and trying to reassure them that he was in fact fine Harry turned up the corners of his mouth a bit, but the halfhearted smile didn't reach the rest of his features.

"Harry, was that…?" Ron stumbled.

"It must have been, I mean who else would it have been?" Hermione picked up.

Harry only just then noticed that his scar was feeling a bit warm, something he hadn't bothered paying attention to when Voldemort was standing right in front of him but that, now that the shock was wearing off, was actually beginning to hurt a pit, the sharp prickles stinging his forehead.

Instintively he threw a hand to his forehead and covered the scar, trying to ease the pain.

"Harry! Are you alright?" Hermione looked quite concerned.

"Oh, yeah. Fine. It just stings a bit."

"Blood hell! What. Was. That?!" Ron nearly shouted half standing on his bench.

"That was Vold-" but before Harry could finish Ron had lurched out of his seat and thrown a hand over Harry's mouth. "Are you mad!? Don't say the name, especially now!"

Harry sighed. If Voldemort was really back what good would it do, after all Voldemort would want to kill Harry and everyone he cared about regardless of whether he spoke the name. Hadn't Dumbledore told him in his first year that 'Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself'? Ah well, Harry could see the panic in Ron's face, and certainly didn't want to add to it now.

Dumbledore just then once again marched into the great hall and stood near the doors. The hall instantly quieted.

"I'm afraid the opening feast will have to be cancled."

If Ron had looked upset before it was nothing compared to now.

"All second to seventh years will report to their common rooms where dinner shall be brought around. First years, if you could please come with me and professor Mcgonagall, right this way."

The overly terrified first years hurried off in a large pack behind the professors and disapered out of sight. Many of the teachers were now disapering as well. Snape was long since gone, vanished as only he seemed to be able to. Students were huddling around the hall in large clusters making an obseen amount of noise as they shouted, and several girls screamed as though they had been waiting to release that shrieking sound since Voldemort's curse had been broken.

Kenneth Towler desperately tried to retain order, seeing how he was this year's prefect now that Percy had graduated. Finally managing to grab most of the Gryffindors' attentions he began hurridly leading them out of the hall, up stairs, and towards their common room.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione lagged behind, not talking but not really wanting to be in the midst of the surging crowd. By the time they reached the fat lady everyone else had gone in.

She looked at them with indignation, "What had been going on here tonight?"

Hermione sighed and said, "aurum rugiens". The fat lady glared at her and demanded, "Tell me what has happened or I will not let you in!"

"Fine, You-Know-Who attacked us all in the great hall," Hermione stated matter-of-factly. The fat lady rolled her eyes and then sighed in defeat swinging open to let them in.

They were met with a burst of sound, and a throng of panicked students who half dragged Harry inside.

"What was that!?"

"Who was that?"

"Was that you know who?"

"How could he be back?"

"Harry, what's going on?"

Sometimes Harry wished people would just use their heads and realize he had as much idea of what was going on as they did. But in that moment he didn't really care enough to even respond, just shouldering past and pushing up the stairs to his dorm. Ron and Hermione followed closely behind him and they could all feel the stares of countless curious eyes boring into their backs.

In his room Harry was met with the concerned faces of Dean, Sheamus, and Neville. He really could not deal with this right now, too much emotion and imagry flowing through his scattered mind. He flung open his chest and ripped out a bluish silvery cloak and proceeded to storm out of the room back down the stairs and out of the common room.

There he stopped, leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. He then turned to see that Ron and Hermione had followed him out, and that the fat lady had disappeared from her frame, meaning the three of them were stuck out there for the time being.

"Come on, Harry." Hermione said softly, and grabbed his arm, "Let's go see Hagrid."

Ron nodded and looked over at Harry, who considered it for a moment and then consented, deciding that a chat with his favorite gamekeeper would likely calm his nerves, plus Hagrid might have some information on what had happened earlier, with the mysterious girl and, him.

A/N I hope you like my latest chapter! Please review, it helps me out a lot!


	4. Chapter 4

The trudge down to Hagrid's hut was wet and cold despite the fact it was only the beginning of September. It was as though the whole world was aware of what had transpired that night and was reacting accordingly, the crisp air bighting at their exposed faces, clouds billowing overhead, and the dark trees of the forbidden forest looming in the distance.

Hagrid opened the door quickly at their knock and looked around in confusion.

"E'llo?" He bellowed. Harry slipped off the invisibility cloak and Ron and Hermione followed suit.

"Harry! Ron! E'rmione!" He shouted happily, then sobered up looking slightly reproachful, "You three shouldn't be wanderin' about like this after what a'ppened. It's not safe. Come in, quickly."

They followed him in as he shut the heavy oaken door and trudged over to the fireside slumping down into a giant furry chair, his great black dog settled beside him.

"We're sorry Hagrid, its just…" Hermione started.

"I needed to get out of there." Harry said simply.

"What happened! Who was that girl, Hagrid!?" Ron interjected loudly.

Hagrid looked over at Ron, a mixture of amusement and sadness mixing together in his beetle black eyes. He stood back up and stumped over to his tiny kitchen, and after a minute of rummaging around in a cubord, produced several cups and a container undoubtedly filled with his famous rock cakes. He grabbed a giant kettle and hung it over the fireplace, then turned back around to face them.

"I'm not really sure I'm the one you should be askin', Ron."

"Then who, who knows what's going on?" Ron still looked very nervous, but then unlike Harry and Hermione he had grown up hearing the stories, had living parents to tell him about fighting Voldemort, and so it was natural that he should be the most perturbed of them. Harry still wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing. He was anxious because of you know who's return, worried for the girl, and hopeful because she had been able to hold her own against him, which meant that they had a chance at least. Hermione was the least affected of the three, probably because she neither had known anyone killed or hurt my death eaters, nor had heard of Voldemort until she had first come to Hogwarts, and although she had done the most research on the subject, and read the most about the gruesome acts he and his followers had done she was still able to think of the most recent situation calmly and logically.

"I'm not sure there is someone, aside from him and the girl. Even Dumbledore is at a loss, doesn't know who she is or what happened."

"But how was she able to defeat Vold-you-know-who?" Harry asked.

"Thant was some pretty advanced magic she was doing, a lot of spells most adult wizards can't perform let alone someone a couple a years older n' you three. But you know what Dumbledore was most surprised 'bout? Those were some big spells he was shootin' at her too, but never did he use the killin' curse. Those spells would'a killed her had they hit, but the killin' curse, there's no defendin' against it, so why didn't he jus' hit her w' it?"

Hagrid shook his head in confusion and beant down to retrieve the now boiling pot of tea and poured four cups for them, handing one to each Harry, Hermione, and Ron, though they all politely refused his cakes.

Shrugging Hagrid sat back down and they followed suit.

"So what about the girl, Hagrid?" Hermione asked, "Is she all right?"

"Madam Pomfrey's workin' on her. She didn't wake up while I was there, but she seemed pretty beat up with all that blood. But Poppy says she wasn't hit with any spell that gave her that wound, says it was likely a knife or somthin' like that."

"But why would you-know-who be using a knife?"

"I don't know. Maybe somebody else was w'him. Anyway, Dumbledore's gonna speak to the ministry, but he says that for now wer're just gonna have school like usual, keep things normal as possible, classes and all that."

"What!? You know who's practically banding down the door and we're expected just to go to class like nothing happened?" Ron practically shouted.

"Ron, if we let him interrupt our lives we're playing right into his goal. The best thing to do is not to panic and to continue on. Besides, it's not as though he's exactly banging down the doors is it? You can't apperate inside Hogwarts, which means something out of the ordinary happened then, and its very unlikely he'll be able to do it again. That protection is big magic and doesn't just go away like that." Hermione snapped her fingers.

"Very perceptive Hermione. Yeah, Dumbledore thinks the girl somehow managed to slip through, which left a gap big enough for you know who to follow her, but it should be closed up again. Besides he's getting all the professors together to put some additional charms on the school, and I'm supposed to talk to the centaurs tomorrow to get them to act sort of like sentries, let us know if anything's comin' our way through the forest. Whatever's goin' on, Hogwarts is the safest place t' be."

Harry leaned back in his seat letting this new information digest. The year had started off so well, what with him actually being able to go to the world cup and all. He had been dumbstruck by his sheer luck, but of course it all fell to pieces, like it always did.

They sat there in silence for a bit longer but finally Hagrid sighed rising to his feet, "You'd better get back up to yer dorms. It's getting' late and you've got classes t'morrow. Now don't go wanderin' around, maybe Hogwarts is the safest place, but stil s'not a good idea t'be wanderin' about in the midst of the night."

They nodded in agreement with him and said their goodbyes, walking out into the crisp night air and slipping under the invisibility cloak once more.

When they reached the common room it was still nearly full, but now most of the students were eating what was left of the feast, likely brought in my the school's house elves. The first years had joined them and were cowering in a corner, little Dennis Creavey nervously nibbling a roll sitting next to his brother.

Several of the students looked up as they walked in, but then went back to silently chewing at their dinners. A few hushed murmers bounced around the room as several groups help quiet conversations. Ron and Hermione plopped down near the fireplace each grabbing a plate of food, Ron promptly digging in. Harry went to stand near them, not eating but just looking around thr eroom thinking.

Just then the portrait swung open once more, and in came Professor Mcgonigall stepped in.

The room quickly shushed as she stood to speak, everyone shocked at her presence.

"As you all know, I'm sure, something very disturbing has transpired here at Hogwarts. Nothing has been confirmed yet, and as the girl is not yet awake we cannot yet question her for answers. The headmaster has contacted the ministry and they agree that the safest place for now is here at Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore has taken extra safety precautions and you all will go about your normal schooling. He also wishes for me to pass along a few start of year notices that he was unable to announce. As always no students are permitted in the forbidden forest. Mr. Filch has also added a few new items to the banned list. The list is posted in his office if you wish to check it."

At this Fred and George both snorted.

"Also, quidditch has been canceled for this year."

Several angry whispers erupted across the room.

"Because, we will be hosting the Tri-wizard tournament. I would have liked to announce this on better terms, but for now the tournament is still on. It is perhaps more important that usual in these dark times to maintain ties with other wizarding schools. As done in past years we will be competing against Durmstrang and Beaubatons, both of which will be arriving her later this year. Please, finish your dinners quickly and get to bed. School still starts tomorrow."

And with that she swept out the door before Harry or anyone had the chance to say anything.


End file.
